Madiba President Nelson Mandela at a Foundation gathering on Wednesday, March 12, 2008.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
CAPE TOWN, Thursday
South Africa heaped praise on Nelson Mandela today as the nation celebrated the 20th anniversary of his release from prison, an earth-shaking event which hastened the demise of apartheid.
Key figures of the anti-apartheid struggle including Archbishop Desmond Tutu paid tribute to the 91-year-old icon in a ceremony at the former Victor Verster Prison from which Mr Mandela was released after nearly three decades in captivity.
Hundreds of people re-enacted the historic moment when the black leader, hand in hand with his then-wife Winnie, walked proudly out of the prison with his fist raised high as the world watched.
Neither Mandela nor his former wife was present for the occasion, though they were both expected to attend a special session of parliament later today.
The walk was part of a full day of ANC celebrations of the historic day and among the most senior in attendance were Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and a host of cabinet ministers and other ANC leaders.
A crowd of several thousand ANC supporters were disappointed, however, at the non-appearance of the two most senior figures expected - President Zuma and Winnie Madikizela Mandela, who had not arrived by midday.
The dignitaries arrived from 7am onwards and first enjoyed tea and breakfast in a massive marquee on the prison grounds, before threading their way en masse back out of the gates as Mandela and Madikizela Mandela had on February 11, 1990.
Cabinet ministers Trevor Manuel and Cyril Ramaphosa spoke outside the gates of their roles as part of Mandela’s “reception committee”.
Nobel peace laureate Tutu exhorted South Africans to use the day to remember the long road the country had travelled since February 11, 1990.
“The day Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison our collective spirit soared. It was a day that promised the beginning of the end of indignity.”
Hundreds of people erupted in a triumphant raised-fist chant of “Amandla Awethu” (power to the people) as they passed a giant bronze statue of Mandela outside the prison, recalling the popular liberation-struggle mantra.
Many braved the scorching sun to sing and dance in the streets, waving ANC and multicoloured national flags.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela herself cancelled an appearance at the celebration at the last minute.
Tutu, widely hailed as the nation’s conscience keeper, said that while much had been achieved, there was still more to be done.
“If we really want to make a difference we must recapture the spirit of that day of Nelson Mandela’s release ... We must not forget the past,” he said.
Mandela spent the final months of his 27-year imprisonment at the prison outside Cape Town, now known as Groot Drakenstein Prison, negotiating his release with apartheid’s last president F.W. de Klerk.
He had spent the bulk of his time behind bars on the notorious Robben Island, and later at Pollsmoor Prison near Cape Town.
Increasingly frail
Mr Mandela, increasingly frail and rarely seen in public, will make his only appearance of the day when he arrives at parliament in Cape Town to hear a special commemorative State of the Nation speech by President Jacob Zuma.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a tribute that the anti-apartheid struggle was the “defining political question of our time” and praised Mandela as “forgiving, playful, utterly gracious and with a generosity of spirit that lifts the world”.
Mr Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, jointly with de Klerk, and became South Africa’s first black president in a landslide election victory for his African National Congress a year later.
Some politicians downplayed de Klerk’s role in ordering Mandela’s release, insisting he had only bowed to pressure.
“In fairness to him, he saw the writing on the wall,” said veteran anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, released four months before Mandela.
“If he did not take the route that he did take, this country was going to be plunged into an era of violence that we had never seen before,” he said.
Mr Ramaphosa recalled that Mr Mandela was serene as he prepared to walk out a free man.
“Here is a man who’s about to be released out of prison after 27 years. He was as cool as a cucumber and younger people would say he’s a cool cat,” said Mr Ramaphosa, who was part of the team that welcomed Mandela.
With Mr Mandela sitting nearby, President Zuma is later expected to tap into the optimism of two decades ago, while outlining a roadmap of the way forward in the year South Africa hosts the football World Cup. Mr Zuma campaigned with promises to fight poverty in a nation with the widest gap between rich and poor in the world. (AFP)
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